Hi friends!
I was about to say I can’t believe that it was snowing last night and there is still snow on the ground today but it is December after all, and the beginning of winter so why am I surprised? It’s because we don’t actually get a lot of snow here so it was a bit of a surprise. It’s also very exciting isn’t it? I love how quiet everything becomes, but I don’t like it because even a tiny bit of it causes a lot of problems on the roads. It does mean the temperature has risen slightly as last week it was too cold for snow. I ordered another load of hardwood for the stove just in case!
I had planned to join in three daily December challenges, but now that December is suddenly here, I am questioning my sanity! This month I am joining:
1. Dephemerember (an ephemera junk journal challenge in December). It’s hosted by two lovely people in Austria – Barbara from 49 Dragonflies and Luise Heinzl, and you can find the challenge on Instagram and Youtube (ephemera creating videos 4x a week).
2. Care December run by the Wanderlust people on Teachable, here’s a link to sign up for free and you will have lifetime access to the lessons. It starts on December 8th.
3. Art Journal Advent which is an Instagram challenge but the prompts are usually on her website too if you want to join in and you can get them by email also (that’s what I’m doing).
Feel free to join in the fun! My plan just now is to try and combine the prompts into one page per day instead of three separate pages. I will be trying to post daily on Instagram but I won’t be posting daily on the blog. Let’s see how that goes!
Today’s Art . . .
Today’s art is my December 1st page and my December 2nd page. Both pages are for Dephemerember and Art Journal Advent as Care December doesn’t start till the 8th. The “journal” I am working in is an accordion journal made from recycled packing paper. I made a journal like this for #junkjournaljuly and really enjoyed working in it so I thought I’d make another one when I had saved enough paper.
December Day 1 page: Dephemerember prompt: opening ¦ Art Journal Advent prompt: a door opens
Background: Paperartsy Fresco paints in various blues + white. Layered on top: old recycled Christmas cards (the trees with the snowy sky backgrounds), free supermarket magazine images – the door, doormat, reindeer, welcome; cat from cat food box, two postage stamps (old Christmas UK and Australia), book paper, Pukka tea sachet and a big No 1 is scrapbook paper.
As my first page has a wintry blue sky I am also joining Art Journal Journey’s December challenge of Above us only sky hosted by Wendy K from Wendy’s Craft Journal.
December Day 2 page: Dephemerember prompt: no prompt today ¦ Art Journal Advent prompt: just do it.
This page is a lot simpler. I used two Paperartsy stencils on the background, the first is a Kay Carley snowflake stencil, and I stencilled in white paint then bumped it and stencilled in gold paint. Over that I used another PA stencil which has all these peaceful words. On top I made a little collage cluster using a smaller version of my watercoloured owl that I scanned, reduced and printed out, some corrugated card, teabag, a different Christmas postage stamp, some tartan scrapbook paper, a piece of watercolour paper with Just Walnut infusions on it, and a big number 2 from a sheet of scrapbook paper. I edged the page with the same blue paint and a dark blue neocolour II crayon.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading and Happy Journalling!
Ingredients
accordion journal made from packing materials, Paperartsy Fresco paints, stencils, Just Walnut infusions, glue, recycled Christmas cards, magazine images, neocolour IIs, gold pen, teabag, watercolour paper, corrugated cardboard,
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – Above us only sky – December Challenge
Art Journal Advent
Care December
Dephemerember
Although I’m on hiatus, I wanted to stop by and thank you for sharing your art with us at AJJ.
These are lovely Elle. I love doing a December daily kind of advent calendar. I’m skipping it this year as I have some other things I need to work on, so I will just have to enjoy yours. I like how you are going festive but not going traditional Christmas. And your journal construction sounds great too. I like that owl too. Have a great end of the weekend, and thanks for joining Wendy’s challenge also. hugs-Erika
I love your sky page for Wendy’s AJJ theme. The orange adds a real touch of cosiness! Thanks so much for sharing. I looked at those challenges but I have enough commitments although I do hope to do at least some of Care December. Hugs, Chrisx